Berkeley Tree-Sitters Forced To Climb Down

After 21 Months, Berkeley Tree-Sitters SurrenderSince December 2006, a community of UC Berkeley tree-sitters has been occupying a 1.5 acre grove on the university's Campus. This Wednesday, the last four remaining people climbed down. Pics of the tree people--and the fate of the trees--below the fold.

Berkeley Tree-Sitters Surrender and Their Tree Falls DownThe tree-sitters' goal? To keep the University from building a training facility there, next to the school's stadium. The tree-sitters believed the campus needed to preserve the trees, many eighty five year old oaks, to keep alive one of the few open spaces left on campus. Since the beginning of the tree sit-in hundreds of people have occupied the trees, some for days others for months.

While the University had tried to negotiate with the tree-sitters before, the ruling of a lawsuit last week gave them the final go ahead with building after protest from environmentalists and homeowners. Soon after the green light was flashed, the school cut down forty trees, isolating four final tree-sitters in a ninety year old redwood. Authorities then built a scaffolding structure that eventually brought them level with the sitters. After a long process of negotiation, all four landed on solid ground, charged with trespassing.

Just after the last of the sitters climbed down, the tree they occupied was cut down.